P4xos: consensus as a network service
In this paper, we explore how a programmable forwarding plane offered by a new breed of network switches might naturally accelerate consensus protocols, specifically focusing on Paxos. The performance of consensus protocols has long been a concern. By implementing Paxos in the forwarding plane, we a...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
2020
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| _version_ | 1797075134853414912 |
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| author | Dang, HT Bressana, P Wang, H Lee, KS Zilberman, N Hakim, W Canini, M Pedone, F Soule, R |
| author_facet | Dang, HT Bressana, P Wang, H Lee, KS Zilberman, N Hakim, W Canini, M Pedone, F Soule, R |
| author_sort | Dang, HT |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | In this paper, we explore how a programmable forwarding plane offered
by a new breed of network switches might naturally accelerate
consensus protocols, specifically focusing on Paxos. The performance
of consensus protocols has long been a concern. By implementing Paxos
in the forwarding plane, we are able to significantly increase
throughput and reduce latency. Our P4-based implementation running on
an ASIC in isolation can process over 2.5 billion consensus messages
per second, a four orders of magnitude improvement in throughput
over a widely-used software implementation. This effectively removes
consensus as a bottleneck for distributed applications in data
centers. Beyond sheer performance, our approach offers several other
important benefits: it readily lends itself to formal verification;
it does not rely on any additional network hardware; and as a full Paxos
implementation, it makes only very weak assumptions about the network. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:46:02Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:70eaffdd-9041-4738-b432-ea04d6712977 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:46:02Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:70eaffdd-9041-4738-b432-ea04d67129772022-03-26T19:40:29ZP4xos: consensus as a network serviceJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:70eaffdd-9041-4738-b432-ea04d6712977EnglishSymplectic ElementsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers2020Dang, HTBressana, PWang, HLee, KSZilberman, NHakim, WCanini, MPedone, FSoule, RIn this paper, we explore how a programmable forwarding plane offered by a new breed of network switches might naturally accelerate consensus protocols, specifically focusing on Paxos. The performance of consensus protocols has long been a concern. By implementing Paxos in the forwarding plane, we are able to significantly increase throughput and reduce latency. Our P4-based implementation running on an ASIC in isolation can process over 2.5 billion consensus messages per second, a four orders of magnitude improvement in throughput over a widely-used software implementation. This effectively removes consensus as a bottleneck for distributed applications in data centers. Beyond sheer performance, our approach offers several other important benefits: it readily lends itself to formal verification; it does not rely on any additional network hardware; and as a full Paxos implementation, it makes only very weak assumptions about the network. |
| spellingShingle | Dang, HT Bressana, P Wang, H Lee, KS Zilberman, N Hakim, W Canini, M Pedone, F Soule, R P4xos: consensus as a network service |
| title | P4xos: consensus as a network service |
| title_full | P4xos: consensus as a network service |
| title_fullStr | P4xos: consensus as a network service |
| title_full_unstemmed | P4xos: consensus as a network service |
| title_short | P4xos: consensus as a network service |
| title_sort | p4xos consensus as a network service |
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